Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, 5 March 2003
Legislative briefing
The Arizona House approved legislation that would force school districts to seek voter approval for funding desegregation programs.
Tucson Unified School District would lose the ability to assess about $62 million in property taxes while Amphitheater Public Schools would lose $4 million. Instead of receiving the money through a property owner's primary tax assessment, the two districts would need to obtain voter approval to put the burden on the secondary assessment.
Both districts are complying either with court-mandated remedies or agreements with the federal government to desegregate schools.
Tucson, for instance, uses some of the money to bring children from its outer
areas into magnet schools that specialize in academic subjects. The measure,
HB2357, passed 37-23 and now goes to the Senate for consideration.